Listen to the new episode of ARRL Audio News on your iOS or Android podcast app, or online at http://www.blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/. Audio News is also retransmitted on a number of FM repeaters. Click here and then scroll down to see the list.

At 2256 UTC on February 28 the Australian Space Forecast Centre issued a Geomagnetic Disturbance Warning. “The Earth is currently under the influence of strongly elevated solar wind speed associated with a coronal hole. A period of significant southward Bz component could produce an isolated Minor Storm period.” The Bz component refers to the interplanetary magnetic field. See: https://bit.ly/1...

With its funding secure for another year, WWV, the world’s oldest continuously operating radio station, will have extra reason to celebrate its centennial this fall. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) have teamed up to organize 100th anniversary events. A memorandum of understanding is pending. The WWV Committee has ann...

The FCC has announced that the Universal Licensing System (ULS), which processes Amateur Radio license applications, will be offline for scheduled maintenance from 0300 UTC until 1300 UTC on Saturday, March 2 (starting late on Friday, March 1, in continental US time zones).

The FCC said all applications submitted on Friday, March 1, and Monday, March 4, will be processed on Tuesday, March 5.

Alex Schwarz, VE7DXW, in British Columbia, Canada, is exploring the possibility that “RF signatures” detected by the RF Seismograph propagation tool could also be indicating earthquakes, and may even be able to predict them shortly before they occur. A real-time HF propagation-monitoring tool developed by Schwarz and the MDSR team, the RF Seismograph shows both band noise and activity or band a...

Those who use Amazon for online purchases can automatically donate to ARRL by opting to use AmazonSmile and designating American Radio Relay League (ARRL) as their charity of choice.

The AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible AmazonSmile items to whichever charity you choose. Product and Marketing Specialist Jackie Ferreira, KB1PWB, reports that the benefit of Amaz...

Some services on the ARRL website may be interrupted briefly on Wednesday, February 27, sometime between 1100 UTC and 1300 UTC. This outage is to accommodate a hardware test of the existing failover system for all systems behind the Rackspace firewall. Affected systems are the main website, including the ARRL Store and contesting-related pages. Logbook of The World (LoTW), e-mail, and all Headq...

Listen to the new episode of ARRL Audio News on your iOS or Android podcast app, or online at http://www.blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/. Audio News is also retransmitted on a number of FM repeaters. Click here and then scroll down to see the list.

ARRL congratulates Amateur Radio educator Carole Perry, WB2MGP, for being the first recipient of the newly established Carole Perry Educator of the Year Award, presented on February 9 by Orlando HamCation®. The award, to be given annually in Perry's name, recognizes outstanding dedication in educating and advancing today’s youth about Amateur Radio.

Bill Thompson, W2MTA, who headed the ARRL Western New York Section from 1980 until 1999, died on February 16. An ARRL Life Member, he was 87.

Formerly of Newark Valley, New York, Thompson was licensed in 1952. He was a Marine Corps Veteran of the Korean Conflict and later was employed by IBM in various posts. In 2009, Thompson was honored with ARRL’s Knight Distinguished Service Award, which rec...

This week and next week, a number of radio amateurs from around the globe are attending the ITU Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) in Geneva, in advance of World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) this fall.

Already, there has been a lot of activity from the International Radio Club, 4U1ITU, including a casual effort in the ARRL International DX Contest (CW) last weekend where, despit...

The winning article for the February 2019 QST Cover Plaque award is “Installing Coax Crimp Connectors” by Dino Papas, KLØS. The QST Cover Plaque Award -- given to the author or authors of the most popular article in each issue -- is determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll web page. Cast a ballot for your favorite article in the March issue today.

No sunspots are visible since January 30. The lack of sunspot activity has persisted for over 3 weeks, as of February 21. This past week (February 14-20) the average daily solar flux was only marginally higher, rising just barely from 70.4 to 70.6. Geomagnetic indicators were lower, with average daily planetary A index declining from 8.1 to 4.9, and average daily mid-latitude A index (measured ...